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I've been saying for years that generated content is an impending tsunami that's going to drown out all real human voices online. The internet may become effect

I've been saying for years that generated content is an impending tsunami that's going to drown out all real human voices online. The internet may become effectively unusable as a result for anything other than entertainment.

boogieknite 2y ago
This is interesting and i see some of this now. Even here on HN and other forums i thought were mostly "human". Even one of my group chats i can tell one of my friends is using ai responses, but one of the other members cant tell and replies earnestly. I am grossed out by this. my instinct is to avoid ai slop. The interesting part to me is: What next? Where do we go? Will it be that "human" forums are pushed further into obscurity of the internet? Or will go so far as that we all start preferring meeting in person? Im clueless here
- whiplash451 2y ago
  Cryptography-secured/signed generated content / interactions?
  - 93po 2y ago
    worldcoin project solves a lot of this when combined with web of trust, however everyone's knee jerk reaction to worldcoin is pretty bad and so it's annoying to even mention it
    - whiplash451 2y ago
      I’m not knowledgeable in crypto/worldcoin. I was rather thinking classical cryptography baked into generative networks.
    - tim333 2y ago
      Worldcoin was intended to solve it but in practice it's not being used that way. Not enough adoption by users or websites. Maybe in the future? I'm a worldcoiner but so far it's just been free money.
      - 93po 2y ago
        i mean it's in its infancy, if there's a critical need for it, which i think there will be soon, i think it'll get more popular
        Andrex 2y ago
        US citizens still use paper Social Security Cards. The point where there is a "critical need" recognized by the relevant parties may be further off than you believe.
- danlugo92 2y ago
  I got into hiking.
- sethammons 2y ago
  Your droids, they'll have to wait outside
- the_gipsy 2y ago
  > Even one of my group chats i can tell one of my friends is using ai responses, but one of the other members cant tell and replies earnestly. Too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?
- Aeolun 2y ago
  Humans will start to notice this shit. I used openai to help me edit my stories originally, but then when I started reading other stories it quickly became evident to me that people just generated them entirely with AI. ChatGPT is way too happy to overuse the word cacophony.
- jowea 2y ago
  My hot take is that we will have some small obscure forums with people, some social media flooded with AI content and other social media where you need to register with government ID and facescan.
  - shortrounddev2 2y ago
    I am 10,000% ready for forums to make a comeback. The internet hasn't been good since 2010
- StefanBatory 2y ago
  Vetting people into groups will become much more common, I think. Unless you can verify that person, ideally by knowing them irl, don't talk to them online.
skywhopper 2y ago
The only problem is that all the AI slop is not actually entertaining either.
- danielbln 2y ago
  Beware of sampling bias. Slop will always be slop.
chpatrick 2y ago
I think it will just become the new baseline abd people will still value anything better than that.
TiredOfLife 2y ago
> The internet may become effectively unusable as a result for anything other than entertainment. That already happened, even without AI.
- okdood64 2y ago
  What was useful and usable about the internet before that isn't now?
nl 2y ago
Why should I care? Have you seen what most humans say? If an AI says more intelligent things I'm all for it.
- nojs 2y ago
  Mission fucking accomplished? https://xkcd.com/810/ https://xkcd.com/810/
- jowea 2y ago
  AIs say what the people giving them orders tell them to. And until we get AGI, AI talk will necessarily be some combination of hallucinations, unintelligent, vapid, etc.
- spaceman_2020 2y ago
  There could be AI agents in this thread right now And you wouldn’t even know it
  - alickz 2y ago
    If you can't tell, does it matter?
    - spaceman_2020 2y ago
      I really don’t think it does
cedws 2y ago
The Internet used to be a sort of hideaway for nerdy people to hang out and have fun. Ever since the invention of the smartphone, possibly before (see “Eternal September”) it’s gone to shit. These days I would rather spend time offline. Are there any other Internet-based hideaways to retreat to? Somewhere where ads, clout chasing, and AI slop doesn’t exist?
- shortrounddev2 2y ago
  IRC is more active than forums, but I miss forums
- GreenWatermelon 2y ago
  Come to Tildes.net! We're comfy small community with a single rule: don't be an asshole.
solardev 2y ago
Maybe that's a good thing. The internet never reached its potential as being the connective fabric of humanity. Mostly it's just marketing and spam. If the internet died and we all went back to smaller communities, that really wouldn't be the worst thing IMO. We're not really evolved for global communications at scale anyway.
- danielbln 2y ago
  We're not evolved for most things in modern life, that's not really much of an argument.
  - solardev 2y ago
    Shrug. Maybe it's an argument to de-modernize more things in order to bring daily life back to the environments we're healthier and happier in. Edit: In particular, I'm not convinced the internet was a net positive. Running water and sewage systems, sure. But what has 24/7 smartphone access actually done for our societies? Most people today don't seem any better off than they were in the 80s and 90s, and in many ways that actually matter, they seem worse off. Sure, they have access to way more information than our predecessors ever did... but it's not like we built a better world off it. Mostly the internet has accelerated the concentration of wealth towards the top, increased anxiety across the world, and significantly contributed to the global downfall of representative democracies, to name a few. Sometimes modernity can just be a collection of pathologies with a few beneficial side effects.
shortrounddev2 2y ago
Would be nice if we were able to go to communities of human verified users. Smaller in scope than social media
Andrex 2y ago
Maybe we should abandon HTTP and create a new protocol just for humans. HHTTP.

boogieknite 2y ago

This is interesting and i see some of this now. Even here on HN and other forums i thought were mostly "human". Even one of my group chats i can tell one of my friends is using ai responses, but one of the other members cant tell and replies earnestly. I am grossed out by this. my instinct is to avoid ai slop. The interesting part to me is: What next? Where do we go? Will it be that "human" forums are pushed further into obscurity of the internet? Or will go so far as that we all start preferring meeting in person? Im clueless here

whiplash451 2y ago
Cryptography-secured/signed generated content / interactions?
- 93po 2y ago
  worldcoin project solves a lot of this when combined with web of trust, however everyone's knee jerk reaction to worldcoin is pretty bad and so it's annoying to even mention it
  - whiplash451 2y ago
    I’m not knowledgeable in crypto/worldcoin. I was rather thinking classical cryptography baked into generative networks.
  - tim333 2y ago
    Worldcoin was intended to solve it but in practice it's not being used that way. Not enough adoption by users or websites. Maybe in the future? I'm a worldcoiner but so far it's just been free money.
    - 93po 2y ago
      i mean it's in its infancy, if there's a critical need for it, which i think there will be soon, i think it'll get more popular
      - Andrex 2y ago
        US citizens still use paper Social Security Cards. The point where there is a "critical need" recognized by the relevant parties may be further off than you believe.
danlugo92 2y ago
I got into hiking.
sethammons 2y ago
Your droids, they'll have to wait outside
the_gipsy 2y ago
> Even one of my group chats i can tell one of my friends is using ai responses, but one of the other members cant tell and replies earnestly. Too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?
Aeolun 2y ago
Humans will start to notice this shit. I used openai to help me edit my stories originally, but then when I started reading other stories it quickly became evident to me that people just generated them entirely with AI. ChatGPT is way too happy to overuse the word cacophony.
jowea 2y ago
My hot take is that we will have some small obscure forums with people, some social media flooded with AI content and other social media where you need to register with government ID and facescan.
- shortrounddev2 2y ago
  I am 10,000% ready for forums to make a comeback. The internet hasn't been good since 2010
StefanBatory 2y ago
Vetting people into groups will become much more common, I think. Unless you can verify that person, ideally by knowing them irl, don't talk to them online.

skywhopper 2y ago

The only problem is that all the AI slop is not actually entertaining either.

danielbln 2y ago
Beware of sampling bias. Slop will always be slop.

chpatrick 2y ago

I think it will just become the new baseline abd people will still value anything better than that.

TiredOfLife 2y ago

> The internet may become effectively unusable as a result for anything other than entertainment. That already happened, even without AI.

okdood64 2y ago
What was useful and usable about the internet before that isn't now?

nl 2y ago

Why should I care? Have you seen what most humans say? If an AI says more intelligent things I'm all for it.

nojs 2y ago
Mission fucking accomplished? https://xkcd.com/810/ https://xkcd.com/810/
jowea 2y ago
AIs say what the people giving them orders tell them to. And until we get AGI, AI talk will necessarily be some combination of hallucinations, unintelligent, vapid, etc.
spaceman_2020 2y ago
There could be AI agents in this thread right now And you wouldn’t even know it
- alickz 2y ago
  If you can't tell, does it matter?
  - spaceman_2020 2y ago
    I really don’t think it does

cedws 2y ago

The Internet used to be a sort of hideaway for nerdy people to hang out and have fun. Ever since the invention of the smartphone, possibly before (see “Eternal September”) it’s gone to shit. These days I would rather spend time offline. Are there any other Internet-based hideaways to retreat to? Somewhere where ads, clout chasing, and AI slop doesn’t exist?

shortrounddev2 2y ago
IRC is more active than forums, but I miss forums
GreenWatermelon 2y ago
Come to Tildes.net! We're comfy small community with a single rule: don't be an asshole.

solardev 2y ago

Maybe that's a good thing. The internet never reached its potential as being the connective fabric of humanity. Mostly it's just marketing and spam. If the internet died and we all went back to smaller communities, that really wouldn't be the worst thing IMO. We're not really evolved for global communications at scale anyway.

danielbln 2y ago
We're not evolved for most things in modern life, that's not really much of an argument.
- solardev 2y ago
  Shrug. Maybe it's an argument to de-modernize more things in order to bring daily life back to the environments we're healthier and happier in. Edit: In particular, I'm not convinced the internet was a net positive. Running water and sewage systems, sure. But what has 24/7 smartphone access actually done for our societies? Most people today don't seem any better off than they were in the 80s and 90s, and in many ways that actually matter, they seem worse off. Sure, they have access to way more information than our predecessors ever did... but it's not like we built a better world off it. Mostly the internet has accelerated the concentration of wealth towards the top, increased anxiety across the world, and significantly contributed to the global downfall of representative democracies, to name a few. Sometimes modernity can just be a collection of pathologies with a few beneficial side effects.

shortrounddev2 2y ago

Would be nice if we were able to go to communities of human verified users. Smaller in scope than social media

Andrex 2y ago

Maybe we should abandon HTTP and create a new protocol just for humans. HHTTP.